I have a suggestion and that is to look for an oldschool 40 pin CD connector cable, most of the 40 pin ide cables have one pin plugged, Ive never tried to remove it... don't think I could with hand tools But I have much the same issue, I have mine separated with a 40 pin M/F cable I bought from Electrodragon for about $2.50. There are available 2.54 mm dual male pin strips 5.65 mm or .225" that can make a male adapter on one end then you will have a 8 to whatever inches works long cable. just make sure that one in the middle isn't plugged, that cable is an IDE cable. I dug in my junk cable box and found 2 or 3 and I paid 11 cents a piece for the 40 pin male to male strips from the same place. Buy a bunch as they are great for interconnecting female jumpers from breadboards to external things like GPS or keypads...

Bob

--> WA7EMS "The solution of every problem is another problem." -Johann Wolfgang von GoetheI do answer technical questions PM'd to me with whatever is in my clipboard